1. Field of the Invention
The inventions relate generally to paper forming machine headbox tube section designs and methods to improve paper properties for increased productivity and formation quality with headbox components having hydrodynamic optimization for paper and board forming. More particularly, the inventions relate to the generation of a specific flow inside the headbox which distributes the fibers in an isotropic form (i.e., uniform in all directions) in the sheet eliminating xe2x80x9cpreferential fiber orientationxe2x80x9d and producing a truly isotropic and uniform sheet, a very desirable condition which has long been sought by papermakers. Enhanced mixing of the stock is thus provided as jets of paper fiber stock emanate from a diffuser block for coupling a distributor to a nozzle chamber in a paper forming machine headbox for discharging a web product with isotropic fiber orientation.
2. Background and Description of Related Art
The quality of paper and the board forming, in manufacture, depends significantly upon the uniformity of the rectangular jet generated by a paper forming machine headbox component for discharging paper fiber stock upon the wire component of the paper forming machine. The fiber orientation in current commercial paper machines is anisotropic with preference to fibers that are oriented generally in the machine direction. Attempts to establish uniform paper stock flow in the headbox component, particularly the nozzle chamber, and to improve paper fiber orientation at the slice output of the headbox have involved using a diffuser installed between the headbox distributor (inlet) and the headbox nozzle chamber (outlet). The diffuser block enhances the supply of a uniform flow of paper stock across the width of the headbox in the machine direction (MD). Such a diffuser box typically includes multiple conduits or tubular elements between the distributor and the nozzle chamber which may include step widening or abrupt opening changes to create turbulent flows for deflocculation or disintegration of the paper fiber stock to ensure better consistency of the stock. High quality typically means good formation, uniform basis weight profiles, uniform sheet structure and high sheet strength properties. These parameters are affected to various degrees by paper fiber distributions, fiber orientations, fiber density and the distributions of fines and fillers. Optimum fiber orientations in the XY plane of the paper and board webs which influences MD/CD elastic stiffness ratios across the width is of significant importance in converting operations and end uses for certain paper grades.
Conventional paper forming apparatus used primarily in the paper and board industry consists of a unit which is used to transform paper fiber stock, a dilute pulp slurry (i.e., fiber suspended in water at about 0.5 to 1 percent by weight) into a rectangular jet and to deliver this jet on top of a moving screen (referred to as wire in the paper industry). The liquid drains or is sucked under pressure through the screen as it moves forward leaving a mat of web fiber (e.g., about 5 to 7 percent concentration by weight). The wet mat of fiber is transferred onto a rotating roll, referred to as a couch roll, transporting the mat into the press section for additional dewatering and drying processes.
The device which forms the rectangular jet is referred to as a headbox. These devices are anywhere from 1 to 9 meters wide depending on the width of the paper machine. There are different types of headboxes used in the industry. However, there are some features that are common among all of these devices. The pulp slurry (referred to as stock) is transferred through a pipe into a tapered section, the manifold, where the flow is almost uniformly distributed through the width of the box. The pipe enters the manifold from the side and therefore, there must be a mechanism to redirect the flow in the machine direction. This is done by a series of circular tubes which are placed in front of the manifold before the converging zone or nozzle chamber of the headbox. This section is referred to as the tube bundle, the tube bank or the diffuser block of the headbox. These tubes are either aligned on top of each other or are placed in a staggered pattern. There are anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand tubes in a headbox.
The tubes in current headboxes have a smooth surface starting from a circular shape in the manifold side and going through one or two step changes to larger diameter circular sections. Some tubes converge into a rectangular outlet (some with rounded edges) at the other end opening to the converging zone of the headbox. Analysis shows that the flow entering the tube may start to recirculate generating vorticity in the machine direction. The sign of the vorticity vector depends on the location of the tube. Very often, there is a pattern that develops as a natural outcome of the tube pattern structure and the structure of the headbox. In current machines, there is no control on the direction or strength of the vortices in the tubes. The tubes all have flat smooth internal surface and the flow pattern and secondary flow inside the tubes is governed by the inlet and outlet conditions. The machine direction vorticity could be positive or negative depending on the inlet and outlet conditions which in turn depend on the location of the tube in the tube bank.
The present invention relates to the control and formation of secondary flow in the tubes in order to achieve a superior flow field inside the converging zone of the headbox to achieve certain flow properties in the converging zone of the headbox. Thus, the concept relates to the modification of the flow inside the tube bank by altering the internal surface geometry of current tubes or tube inserts. The internal surfaces of all of the current tubes or tube inserts are either circular and therefore axisymmetric (type I), or, they start from a circular inlet and eventually converge into a rectangular outlet (type II) with a four fold symmetry (i.e., the entire tube can be divided into symmetric regions by two diagonal cross-sectional planes, one vertical cross-sectional plane and one horizontal cross-sectional plane. The new concept is to modify the geometry of the type I and/or inserts such that the internal surface is no longer axisymmetric or non-axisymmetric, and to modify the internal geometry of the type II tubes such that the internal geometry of the tube or the insert is no longer four fold symmetric. One described embodiment modifies the internal geometry of each tube in order to generate machine-direction (MD) vorticity and subsequently to arrange the tube or the insert in such a manner so that all the jets in each row of the tube bundle form with the same sign of MD vorticity vector and the jets in each column form with alternating sign of the MD vorticity. This generates shear layers which would result in cross-machine orientation of fibers and therefore would increase the strength and other physical properties in the CD while providing effective mixing and turbulent generation between tubes adjacent to each other in each row.
Another described embodiment modifies the internal geometry of each tube insert or tube in order to generate machine-direction (MD) vorticity and subsequently to arrange the tubes or the inserts in such a manner so that all the jets in each row and column of the tube bundle form with the same sign of MD vorticity vector. This results in strong mixing and dispersion of the fibers and fillers and therefore better uniformity in fiber and filler distribution in the sheet.
Another mechanism to generate axial vorticity inside the tubes of a headbox is to have a device, a tube insert, wherein a flat section at the manifold side is followed by a converging curved section, followed by a straight tube section, and where, one or more inclined fins or grooves are placed on the flat section or on the flat and the converging curved section of the headbox tube or insert nozzle of the headbox tube. The purpose of inclined fins or grooves is to control the defined direction or orientation of the axial vortices generated inside the tubes. The converging section of the insert nozzle or tube will accelerate the fluid and increase the angular velocity of the fluid, consequently, increasing the strength of the vortex as the fluid moves toward the straight (constant diameter) section of the tube. In another alternate embodiment, the generation one or more counter-rotating vortex pairs (CVPs) may be set up inside each tube instead of a single vortex per tube.
Briefly, the invention relates to methods and apparatus to enhance paper and board forming qualities with insert tubes and/or a diffuser block in the paper forming machine headbox component which generates vorticity in the machine direction (MD) which is superimposed on the streamwise flow to generate a swirling or helical flow through the tubes of the diffuser block. Tubes of the diffuser block are designed such that the web product with isotropic fiber orientation of the paper fiber stock may be controlled by generating controlled axial vortices promoting mixing of the jets of paper stock from the tubular elements as the jets flow into the nozzle chamber to a uniform flow field of stock at the slice opening for the rectangular jet. Also disclosed is the effective mixing of the jets generating cross-machine direction (CD) shear between the rows of jets that form at the outlet of the tubes inside the nozzle chamber of the headbox to align paper fibers in the cross-machine direction.
The appended claims set forth the features of the present invention with particularity. The invention, together with its objects and advantages, may be best understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.